Hey youtubers it’s Charlie, this is going to be my Doctor Who Finale Review and a breakdown
of the Christmas Special Trailer.
A bunch of you have already asked me on twitter about some of the big moments imply about
next year and series 9 so I’ll try to address all those.
Real Quick reminder, the weekly giveaway regenerates right now. All you have to do to enter is
be a subscriber and leave a comment on the video. Feel free to leave 10 comments. There
was enough happening to make everyone go crazy.
Careful for spoilers if you’re not caught up. But Starting with Top 10 moments.
Number 10 - Doctor Clara Rule Number 1
Lots of Doctor Clara Lying, it explained the “Clara never existed” line. And yes that
was the Danny Cyberman in the special office box. Number 9 - Cybermen Everywhere and No One
Cares
This was a continuation of the final moment from last week and the children in the forest
in episode 10 being completely unimpressed with scary things.
Number 8 - UNIT Is Back
So many things, Osgood with the Bowtie, Kate Stewart with the Mondas
Cyberman Head.
Number 7 - Cybermen Weather Forecast
When Missy explained they were pollenating, the cyber conversion process goes like this.
Cyberman explodes in the air spreading a giant cloud of nanites, nanites bond with water
molecules in the air, rain down and start cyber converting organic matter. Namely the
dead.
Which is why it jumped to Chaplet Funeral Home, I believe this was a reference to Dodo
Chaplet. Who was a companion towards the end of the first Doctor’s run.
The critical step is Missy downloading all the stored minds from the data cloud into
the cyber converted bodies.
If she didn’t do that, it would be a bunch of lifeless cybermen. Which she was controlling
with the wrist bracelet.
Number 6 - Doctor President of Earth
I feel like they crammed more references to classic who in this scene than almost anywhere
else. There’s the Brigadier Painting, the fact that the Fourth Doctor was President
of The Time Lords for a brief period, I think that was also during the middle of a Master
arc.
I heard a Thunderbirds shout out. And the setup for the Doctor never saluting the Brigadier,
which they did pay off at the end.
Number 5 - Missy Teases Gallifrey
As we all expected, Gallifrey was mentioned. Missy’s explanation leaves a lot to be desired.
The way it’s written leaves a lot of room for interpretation. She kind of waves her
hand at the mechanics.
But here’s what I gathered. The Doctor saved Gallifrey during the 50th. So all of the events
of End of Time were nullified. Everyone, including Rassilon were incorporated into this new Capaldi
Even though it seemed like the coordinates were bogus, Gallifrey is still in the pocket
universe. Along with Rassilon and everyone else that didn’t die during the time war
before the events of the 50th.
As for the explanation of her escape. Here are two possibilities.
We know she has a TARDIS, which I think is the red phone booth. She could have found
a way to pilot it out of the pocket universe that the other timelords haven’t discovered
yet. She could just be more clever.
Or she could be this person here, climbing out of the painting during the 50th. It looks
like a Woman’s hand grabbing the frame from the inside of the painting.
Those are just two theories about how she escaped, so if you have a different one just
write it in the comment.
I think she regenerated after the end of time, sometime during the 50th while that was all
going down.
Number 4 - Missy Destroys Everyone on the Plane and Leaves the Doctor Mid-Air
I love that she was waiting for him to go splat and regenerate. Even though there was
a whole Matrix vibe coming off last week and that was a classic who story involving the
stealing of regenerations. I felt like they way Moffat wrote Missy, she didn’t seem
like she cared about regenerations.
A lot of you hypothesized in the comments that Missy is somewhere around her fourth
regeneration and Capaldi is the beginning of a new cycle too. So neither of them are
super worried about dying.
Although the whole Doctor mid-air TARDIS entry Squee thing was funny.
Totally not surprised they had Missy vaporize SEB. Even though the Squee was a little too
much, I laughed.
I’m really bummed that Osgood is dead. And even though they saved Kate I think Osgood
is gone. They just wanted to not bring the character back so they killed her off.
Really nice that Missy called her pretty and tried to boost her self esteem before doing
the deed.
Number 3 - Danny Pink Cyberman Feels
Appropriately Horrific reveal when he pulled the facemask off. I feel like we knew it was
going to be him from the minute we saw the crumpled up paper earlier in the episode.
But still stung a bit when we saw his face.
It reminded me of the Dalek Oswin reveal at the end of Asylum, where we see the human
face inside the Dalek.
I still feel like that moment is a level of scary that series 8 never quite matched. Dalek
Oswin way more frightening to watch than Cyberman Danny Pink.
Totally not surprised that he had a level of control over the other Cybermen, even though
the Doctor could have probably done the same thing himself with the control bracelet.
Couple of other Graveyard favorites including the gravestones of Amy, Rory and Victorian
Clara.
There had been a rumor of an Amy Rory Cyberman scene, and I’m actually kind of glad it
wasn’t in there. I feel like it would have been too much with them already doing the
Brigadier Cyberman moment.
Number 2 - The Master Explains Everything
I just want my friend back, best reason to destroy the human race ever.
Michelle Gomez did an amazing job of being sympathetic, I really felt like her version
of The Master desperately wanted her best friend back but because of the sound of drums,
she’d been twisted to the point of insanity.
She didn’t even care what the Council of Time Lords would do to her when they got back
to gallifrey. That’s how bad she wanted the Doctor back.
Michelle Gomez wins this episode, always. I really do think she’s amazing. I can’t
wait to see how Moffat explains her surviving, the next time she shows up.
And yes, I definitely think she’ll be back at some point. Maybe not the Christmas Special
and but hopefully at some point during Series 9.
I feel like she’ll continue to be tied to the Gallifrey Plot regardless of whatever
her next big scheme is.
As for the actual coordinates she gave the Doctor. I think Moffat will explain that in
Series 9. It seemed like she was lying. The Doctor smashed the console because he was
pissed.
It’s possible that Missy just omitted some critical piece of information or The Doctor
was being a pudding brain and misinterpreted what she was saying.
And my Number 1 WTF Moment - Clara is Leaving and The Christmas Special Teaser
Starting with Clara, I understand the Danny Pink end credits scene, I understand why they
wrote it that way. Giving his character a sad but hopeful ending.
I think the reason they left Clara alive but kept Danny Pink dead was to not do the exact
same thing they did with Amy and Rory. They wanted a simliar sad ending but didn’t want
to completely recycle Amy’s ending by having Clara jump into the void.
And they had to lay the groundwork for a new companion coming on. Which could totally happen
during the christmas special or in the first episode of series 9.
They made the queen joke about a female doctor, totally think that will happen during our
lifetimes, just not in the next regeneration.
Let me know though, what was your favorite moment and do you think we’ll see the next
companion during the christmas special?
I fully expect Capaldi to stay on until Moffat Leaves. Which could be as early as Series
10. It’s possible Moffat will leave after series 9. It’s too soon for him to go now
because they probably started writing scripts for it.
Series 9 will probably premiere around the same time next year, which means they’d
have to start filming early next year and in order to do that, they’d have to have
finished scripts ready to go by the end of this year.
Moffat is a busy man, they’re also shooting the Sherlock 2015 christmas special in January.
So after they finish shooting that I think they’ll start shooting series 9.
Now to address the Christmas Special Footage. Yes that was Nick Frost as Santa Claus at
the end.
In the teaser image they released of him, he’s wearing a futuristic looking uniform,
so either he’s a humanoid alien playing Santa or he’s going to be someone from earth’s
future playing Santa.
Christmas Episodes deal with Christmas as an event, so I think that explains the santa
suit. But I’ve seen a lot of you theorize that the episode is going to present santa
claus as a real person. Like he exists, it’s not just a character people dress up as.
The location will be a research station at the north pole. When the Doctor said that
I thought of Ice Station Zebra, the Cold War Movie from the 60s. The creature looks like
it could be an Ice Warrior without it’s armor.
Sometimes they spoil those things in the trailers. They’ll probably release more clips and
images in the next couple of weeks.
We’ve only got about 7 weeks, so just expect new things from the BBC at least once a week.
So just to rank the finale against the other recent finales I’ll give it a B plus. And
when I’m comparing it to other finales I’m just trying to judge it based on Eccleston,
Tennant and Smith’s first finale.
Peter Capaldi has only had one season so it’s kind of unfair to judge this finale against
Matt Smith’s or tennant’s third seasons. The more time you get to spend with each doctor,
the more precious they become, the more rewarding finales become.
So let’s just stick to each doctor’s first finale. I still think Eccleston’s is the
best, then The Series 5 Finale, Then the series 2 finale. Death in Heaven didn’t quite nail
the dismount but I love it for bringing back The Master in a really interesting way.
I just feel like it had to much extra baggage to deal with. You have a brand new doctor,
another doctor’s companion leaving and a gender swapped fan favorite character being
introduced. All in a season when almost every major plot point was leaked.
In all fairness, Matt Smith originally had intended to stay on for Series 8 but then
changed his mind early last year causing the BBC to scramble to find a new Doctor. That
created the unusual situation where you have a brand new companion coming and going in
the span of two seasons.
I feel like the transition completely overshadowed our ability to connect with Clara as a companion.
I think it was a lot easier to bond with Amy Pond because she was introduced at the same
time as Matt Smith was, they even brought her back for his regeneration scene. Arguably
the current companion should be the only companion on screen when a doctor regenerates.
Just a little messy there, but all in all I am very excited for the Christmas Special
and what Series 9 has in store.
I will do a separate series 9 predictions video, so be sure to subscribe to get that.
My Q&A for the finale will post tomorrow. So please ask all your Missy, Gallifrey, Christmas
Special questions.
Right now click here to get that and click here for my Episode 11 video.
Thanks for watching, now let’s all high five and I’ll see you guys tonight!